A team of astronomers has identified a temperate exoplanet as a promising super-Earth ice or water world.

This is the first time we have ever seen a hint of an atmosphere on a habitable zone rocky or ice-rich exoplanet. Detecting atmospheres on small, rocky worlds is a major goal for JWST, but these signals are much harder to see than for giant planet atmospheres.

The planet, located about 48 light-years away in the constellation Cetus, emerges as one of the most promising habitable zone exoplanet candidates known, potentially harboring an atmosphere and even a liquid water ocean.

Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140 b with JWST/NIRISS

https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15136